Prep: A Novel

by Curtis Sittenfeld

Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A modern classic of adolescent angst and ambition set in the world of prep school, from the author of Romantic Comedy and Eligible—“a tart and complex tale of social class, race, and gender politics” (The Boston Globe)
 
One of The New York Times Book Review’s Ten Best Books of the Year
 
Lee Fiora is an intelligent, observant fourteen-year-old when her father drops her off in front of her dorm at the prestigious Ault School in Massachusetts. She leaves her animated, affectionate family in South Bend, Indiana, at least in part because of the boarding school’s glossy brochure, in which boys in sweaters chat in front of old brick buildings, girls in kilts hold lacrosse sticks on pristinely mown athletic fields, and everyone sings hymns in chapel.

As Lee soon learns, Ault is a cloistered world of jaded, attractive teenagers who spend summers on Nantucket and speak in their own clever shorthand. Both intimidated and fascinated by her classmates, Lee becomes a shrewd observer of—and, ultimately, a participant in—their rituals and mores. As a scholarship student, she constantly feels like an outsider and is both drawn to and repelled by other loners. By the time she’s a senior, Lee has created a hard-won place for herself at Ault. But when her behavior takes a self-destructive and highly public turn, her carefully crafted identity within the community is shattered.

Ultimately, Lee’s experiences—complicated relationships with teachers; intense friendships with other girls; an all-consuming preoccupation with a classmate who is less than a boyfriend and more than a crush; conflicts with her parents, from whom Lee feels increasingly distant—coalesce into a singular portrait of the painful and thrilling adolescence universal to us all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780812972351
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/22/2005
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	7.88(w) x 5.16(h) x 0.37(d)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Curtis Sittenfeld is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Prep, The Man of My Dreams, American Wife, Sisterland, and Eligible, and the story collection You Think It, I’ll Say It, which have been translated into thirty languages. Her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post Magazine, Esquire, and The Best American Short Stories, of which she was the 2020 guest editor. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, and Vanity Fair, and on public radio’s This American Life.

Hometown:

Washington, D.C.

Date of Birth:

August 23, 1975

Place of Birth:

Cincinnati, Ohio

Education:

B.A., Stanford University, 1997; M.F.A., University of Iowa (Iowa Writers¿ Workshop), 2001

Website:

http://www.curtissittenfeld.com

Read an Excerpt

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Reading Group Guide

1. How does Prep differ from other books about teenagers you’ve read?
Reviews have cited the book as an unsentimental view of high school and adolescence—do you agree? How does Lee Fiora’s point of view relate to your own high school experience?

2. Throughout the novel, Lee describes herself as an outsider, partly because of her scholarship-student status. How does Sittenfeld develop this theme of fitting in racially and financially? What kind of difficulties, both overt and subtle, do Little, Sin-Jun, Darden, and other minority students encounter at Ault, and how does their outsider status differ from Lee’s?

3. How does the school-wide game of Assassin temporarily transform
Lee? How do her interactions with her classmates during this game empower her? Explore her guilt in “killing” McGrath.

4. Many readers and reviewers of Prep have described Lee as a passive character. When is Lee submissive, and when does she act on her desires, even if subconsciously? Does her level of assertion change by the end of the novel?

5. Lee experiences friction with her parents when they visit Ault for
Parents’ Weekend. How has her relationship with them changed since she left for boarding school? Her father states, “When you started at Ault . . . I said to myself, I’ll bet there are a lot of kids who’d think real highly of themselves going to a place like that.
And I thought, but I’m glad Lee has a good head on her shoulders.
Well, I was wrong. I’ll say that now. We made a mistake to let you go” (202). Do you think Lee has changed in the way her father claims she has?

6. Many reviewers have mentioned that Prep feels autobiographical and reads like a memoir, but Sittenfeld denies that her novel closely follows her life. Why, then, do you think Prep comes across as so authentic and personal?

7. Is Angela Varizi, The New York Times reporter who interviews Lee,
manipulative in her interview? Do you think Lee intended, even if subconsciously, to give a negative picture of Ault?

8. During Lee’s final conversation with Cross Sugarman, he tells her,
“You’ll be happier in college. . . . I think it’s good you’re going to a big school, somewhere less conformist than Ault” (380). Why does
Cross think this, and do you agree with him? How do you envision
Lee changing after high school?

9. Reviewers have compared Sittenfeld to other authors in the boardingschool-
novel genre, including J. D. Salinger, John Knowles, and
Tobias Wolff. How does Prep differ from those other novels? How does a female perspective affect Prep?

10. How does Lee’s adolescence compare to your own? Which of her high school experiences resonate with you most?

Editorial Reviews

Do you remember what high school felt like? Curtis Sittenfeld does, and she captures the experience brilliantly. . . . Angst is everywhere between the pages, but so too is wit, wisdom, and empathy.”—Marie Claire

“Prep conveys the inner world of an entirely typical teenage girl with remarkable warmth. . . . One of the most tender and accurate portraits of adolescence in recent memory.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Hilarious and excruciating . . . [a] richly textured narrative.”—The New Yorker

“[A] class act.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Funny, excruciatingly honest, improbably sexy, and studded with hardwon, eccentric wisdom about high school, heartbreak, and social privilege. One of the most impressive debut novels in recent memory.”—Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children and Election

“Gripping . . . The intensity of Lee’s experience gives it from the outset its own throbbing, undeniable legitimacy. . . . The novel never slows, due to Sittenfeld’s perfect pacing and almost reportorial knack for describing what it’s like—psychologically, logistically—to be fifteen. . . . Insightful, unexpectedly candid.”—The Washington Post Book World

“For everyone who wished that Holden Caulfield was a girl, your time has come with Prep.”—U.S. News & World Report

“Sittenfeld writes convincingly of the torments of adolescence, the anxiety inherent in every small gesture and conversation. Her dialogue captures teenage humor brilliantly, and her characters show remarkable depth and a surprising but believable maturity. . . . Candid . . . Moving.”—Chicago Tribune

“The details are perfect. . . . Lee is an appealing heroine.”—Newsweek

“The list of writers who have attempted to capture the angst of teens at prep school includes J. D. Salinger, John Knowles and, more recently, Tobias Wolff. Now an impressive new talent joins this distinguished roster. Avoiding overextended melodrama along with obvious clichés in her whole-hearted, raw, and impressive first novel, Curtis Sittenfeld unleashes a pure, unrefined narrative on the transcendental experiences of adolescence. . . . Sittenfeld’s brilliant writing sparkles in each turn, hitting the bitter isolation of adolescence spot-on.”—Rocky Mountain News

“Engrossing . . . Sittenfeld’s writing is wonderfully descriptive, as well as spare and clear-eyed; her talent is evident in the smooth pacing and well-developed characters. . . . A gorgeous and charming debut that belongs with the fine coming-of-age stories of our time.”—The Charlotte Observer

“[An] A-grade coming-of-age debut . . . saturated with heartbreaking humor and written in clean prose . . . [A] poignant, truthful book.”—Publishers Weekly

“Engrossing . . . Sittenfeld has an enormous knack for storytelling and dialogue, and a delightful feel for words. She vividly conjures the rollercoaster emotions of adolescence, no matter how recent and raw or longago and healed.”—The Cincinnati Enquirer

“Finely written . . . Teenagers and freshly minted grads will gobble up this voyeuristic trip inside an enclave of privilege.”—People

From the Publisher